


Procrastination

by sanctum_c



Series: Tifa Week 2019 [6]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Character Study, Condoms, F/M, Implied Sexual Content, Introspection, No Dialogue, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27761734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Tifa needs to go in. But-
Relationships: Tifa Lockhart/Cloud Strife
Series: Tifa Week 2019 [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2016010
Kudos: 12





	Procrastination

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Protection'

Okay breath. She could do this. Tifa closed her eyes and composed her thoughts.

Nothing bad. Nothing unusual. Other people did the same thing. Well. Seemed to. The necessity drilled into her in lessons, in moralising television shows. In overheard conversations in the Seventh Heaven. And yet- The thought of going through with it-

She shivered. Because the person at the till would know. They would see, they would infer, they would draw conclusions.

Which to be fair was a massive assumption on their part. How did they know what she planned to do? Limited other uses, but some existed. Admittedly few of those remotely relevant within a town. She might be a teacher. Or a special effects technician. Or doing a favour for a friend. Or some communal shopping for some kind of flat-share.

Wait. No, still implied the same thing ultimately. A more shared implication than one implicit to her.

A conversation with Aeris – close to the end – had left her with the implication of other methods. Of course those existed for her too – but involved (again) talking to someone else about her intimate tendencies. Medication or surgical intervention. Alternate explanations for both again, but nothing fit. She could lie.

Sigh. Aeris’s method was a tad different though. The Cetra increasingly adept at drawing on more of the Planet’s knowledge – and the apparent depth of said knowledge was far beyond anything Shinra plumbed. Beyond anything Tifa heard before. No need to buy anything, no need to talk to a doctor; instead invoke a spell.

Complicated matters these days; not simply a binary of yes or no. Infections and viruses, spread through close contact. Tifa had asked Aeris about those too, blushing as she did. Aeris to her credit answered without qualification, no teasing insights into who the other person involved was for Tifa to ask such questions. Obvious or did her friend not care? Too late to ask. Too late for a lot.

Tifa shifted her feet. Why was this so hard? Again, not something she had to worry about before. Boyfriends came prepared – some making major assumptions way before she reached the same conclusion. Or eternally optimistic. Or always prepared. Easy to fall into the mindset her partner would take care of things.

And.

They.

Always.

Did.

Until Cloud. A night alone beneath the Highwind. The end of the world alarmingly close, the frightening form of Meteor hanging in the sky above. Avalanche split up, each alone seeking their own reason to fight, their own reason to come back and descend into the heart of the Planet. And all had gone – except for Cloud and Tifa. No one left for them out there. Oh, they could have gone to visit Marlene like Barret did – but the moment was his not hers and Cloud's.

They could have revisited the City of the Ancients, to Aeris’s resting place – but there was no reason there to fight on. Aeris had done all she could already; they would go to help her if they found reason. She could not inspire Cloud or Tifa to press on – as much as they mourned her absence and wished for fate to have resolved differently.

They could have returned to Nibelheim, but why? Not their home. A bad copy, rendered to cover a truth. No one they cared about, no certainties from their past. Aside from the Shinra mansion and the Mount Nibel Mako reactor. Neither comforting places to return to. Neither of them reasons to fight.

Nothing for them to seek. Their friends had relatives, loved ones (though who Reeve would seek out remained an unanswered question for so long) to spend some time with. To say goodbye to. Tifa’s and Cloud’s were gone long ago.

And in the fading sunlight of the penultimate day of their lives, in perhaps one of the final days of the Planet, it was clear all Tifa had left to fight for was Cloud. And all Cloud had to fight for was Tifa. There was nowhere to go. And she spoke words, her nerves screaming, worried Cloud might miss her implication. There were other ways to express feelings.

He understood. They embraced. Unplanned, unlooked for before. And the concerns, the fears, every reason for wanting protection melted away. There might not be an afterwards to regret the action. Might not be another chance if they postponed and sought what they were missing. All they had was this one moment.

And they lived. Other moments after, when the Planet settled, when life got back to normal. But always with protection and never something Tifa had to worry about. Until now. Until she noticed the empty box in the bedside table and thought it would be helpful to restock.

Leaving her in the current quandary. No. No more procrastinating. She could do this. Tifa marched into the drug store; damn the conclusions and assumptions by the staff.


End file.
